Thursday, 26 November 2009

Posting this easy recipe I'm using for my normal, no-frill style dinners.It's basically a wok or stew, and you can add any kind of meat and veggies. Then some marinade made out of the holy triangle (soya, sake and mirin) and a few more additives, and you're set!

Today it went like this:Quantity of pork (tender part)Fennel, carrot, shiitake, lotus root, shiso leaves; chopped.Marinate in a mix of soya, sake, mirin, dashi, sesame seeds, salt and sugar.Fry fast in a pan or wok, add the marinade when the meat is done and simmer for a few more minutes. Serve with rice, umeboshi, and in this case deep fried lotus root.As a pre-dinner snack we had some edamame (soya beans in pod).

Wednesday, 16 September 2009

So, while making dinner tonight I got the idea of making "food bases" and freeze them for easier and faster cooking without using ready-made food from the store.So far I've come up with 3 color bases, and from these an endless variety of recipes.

This weekend I decided to spoil Mr.Linuz with maki, as it is one of his favorite food.Maki really is very simple, once you got some decent sushi rice going, it's just about filling and cutting. We choose salmon (sake), scallops (hottate gai) and trout caviar (ikura) this time. I'd gotten hold of 1.class Salma salmon, so fresh you don't have to freeze it before you eat it raw.I also made a small sashimi starter; salmon sliced with caviar and ponzu sauce.

For the maki you need:Sushi rice, about 3 cups, uncookedSheets of noriSeafood and vegetables to fill, I used rew salmon, raw scallops, trout caviar, boiled aspargus, sticks of cucumber, wasabi and mayonaise.

Rice3 cups of sushi rice (I've got a steamcooker, so I just wash it, put it in with required water and push "cook"), if you don't have one, it's about 3 cups of water to 3 cups of washed and soaked rice (20 min) + a small sheet of kombu in the cooking water if you'd like. Let it boil up under a lid, switch the heat all the way down and cook under a lid for 20 min. Rest the rice 10 min.

The cooked rice goes into a hangiri or another large bowl for cooling. Pour over sushi-zu (3 tbsp rice vinegar brought to boil with 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp salt, cooled down) and flip the rice over with a spatula to mix it. Let it cool. Put a wet towel over the bowl to keep it moist.

MakiPut a nori sheet on a rolling mat covered with plastic. Put an amount of rice on the nori sheet to cover about 3/4 of it, add filling in the middle of the rice. Grab one end of mat and fold into a roll. Squeese the mat to make it real round. Cut in 6 or 8 pieces.

Saturday, 8 August 2009

Yesterday I made some real Japanese summer food. It hardly requires a recipe, you just boil noodles, cool them off, mix some dipping soup and some garnish. This is great food if you don't feel like eating at all. In Japan they sometimes serve this in a bowl with ice cubes or in a running stream of water!

I "cheated" and bought ready-made menmi (dipping soup) that only needs to be mixed with 3 parts of water. If you want to make your own, try this recipe: 1 cup of dashi, 1/3 cup of mirin, 1/3 cup of soya. Heat the mirin in a pan, add soya and dashi. Bring to boil and cool down. Dillute with water if you like, and add garnish like ginger, chopped onions and shiso.

With our cold soba noodles (buckwheat), we had carrots, cucumber, omelet strips, ham and silken tofu.Mr. Linuz really liked it, and he added some cold, grilled salmon from the day before as well. We also added some red shiso to the menmi.

Make doughDissolve the yeast and sugar in lukewarm milk, leave for 5 min, then add the egg beaten with water and lukewarm margarine, plus salt. Stir together and add the flour, cup by cup, leaving 1/2 cup out. Form the dough into a ball and knead in the rest of the flour. Leave to rise for abt. 10 min. Use at once, or refrigerate for up to 24 hrs.

Make fillingBoil eggs and potatoes until done. Sieve potatoes and peel eggs. Chop them into small pieces.Cut the cabbage into strips and boil for 2 min in salted water. Strain and chop it up more.Put the oil in a large pan or wok, add garlic, fry 2 min, add cabbage and dill. Fry until soft, add potatoes and eggs + any other filling. Adjust taste with s/p.

Make circular pieces of the dough and put 2 tbsp filling on one half. Close it into a half circle, close the edges with a fork and put beaten egg on it.Cook the pirogi for 20-25 minutes on 200 degrees C until brown.

Tuesday, 7 July 2009

I'm proud to present: Mr. Graham Thomas and Heritage.The lovely Austin roses currently growing in my garden. Planted in mid-May, they're now full of fragrant flowers, Graham Thomas (above) has pale yellow, almost peach flowers. Heritage (under) has light pink, almost white, some more pink, full flowers. I have high hopes for these ones!

Growing daikon has proven to be quite interesting and quite tricky for a garden-virgin like me.But, this one I think will be a success, after a few attempts that has ended with small, withered ones...I have no idea if this pot is deep enough or how long this root is now, but I'll try to let it grow for another week or so to see if it gets thicker.The daikon is Hybrid Daebu Summer, and it should be grown in 60 days after sowing.It was planted around May 15th, so that gives it another week to grow.

My green shiso is also growing well these days. After a rocky start in the beginning of summer, they got pale green and were bothered by insects, they've matured into rich, dark green plants with huge leaves. I will salt the leaves for onigri wrappers this week - so stay tuned!

Sunday, 21 June 2009

I bought a mix for instant pickles in the Japanese market, so I thought I'd give it a go.Since the instructions on the packet is in Japanese, I had to search a bit to find out how, but hey, it's not that hard... I did get an advice to add some lemon juice and shiso, so I did that.Otherwise: 200-250 g of vegetable of choice, I used cucumber and aubergine, add a pack of instant tsukemono powder, lemon juice, shiso to a plastic bag. Leave in the fridge for a few days.

I've already tasted some, and they're quite good. Next time I'll try to make my own tsukemono powder though... to escape the msg...

Whisk together, starting with egg whites and salt, then adding sugar and eventually vinegar and corn starch + vanilla.When the meringue has become thick and shiny, pour in on a baking sheet where you've drawn a circle of about 26 cm in diameter. Form a circle of the mass.Put it in an oven heated to 250 degrees C, switch the heat down to 100 degrees. Fry it on 100 degrees for at least an hour. Cool down.Decorate with whipped cream, berries, vanilla cream....

Tuesday, 16 June 2009

So, I've taken a liking to renkon, lotus root. I bought fresh one this spring and used it all for chips, but I picked up a pack of frozen renkon as well. It's been sitting in my freezer waiting for inspiration... Then I got 2 renkon recipes from my Japanese friend Ryoko (thanks!), and yesterday I tried out one of them in a moderated form.The recipe calls for a shrimp mixture to be put inside the renkon "sandwiches", but I decided to do it as a vegetarian side dish as I had no shrimps.Update: I made it again with shrimps! Also good, and I took new pictures for this post.

How to make it:Shrimp filling:De-vein the shrimps, and rinse them in cold water. Chop the onion and ginger finely. Place it in a food processor with the katakuriko starch, salt and sake. Run it until it becomes a fine mixture.

Cut the lotus root into 1/8 inch pieces, if too big, into half moons again. Soak them in water with vinegar for 4-5 minutes.

Dust the lotus root with flour and put a shiso leaf on one piece. Add shrimp mixture, if using, put another lotus root on top. Seal with a nori band. Sprinkle with more flour.

Deep fry in hot oil until crisp, but not brown. Turn once.Garnish with lemon. Serve with dressing of choice.

Saturday, 13 June 2009

My plants have finally moved outside, all except the small aka-shiso'sthat are happy in the window of my kitchen for now.The mini bok choi is growing fast and happy, and the green shiso is quitelarge now. My daikons and sugar snaps are also coming along.

There's a small problem though --- bugs.... some small insects have attackeda few plants and left stripes in the green leaves. So Monday, I'm off to the storeto get something to protect my plants. No toxic stuff, but I hope there's somethingI can do... My kitchen will be pretty crowded if I'd have to move it all inside...

Todays dinner for Mr. Linuz was salmon sashimi with ponzu dressing and freshshiso. Served with rice and carrot wedges. No photo of that I'm afraid...

A quick sunday dinner, maybe not entirely Japanese, but we try... Sake shiso - salmon with fresh shiso baked in the oven and served with rice, pickles, miso soup and salad.Here's the lovely salmon ready for the oven: Topped with sweet soya, salt and shiso:

Sunday, 17 May 2009

Oh boy, I do enjoy having a small garden! Well, at least a large terrace and a small piece of soil next to my kitchen wall..Last week I received my parcel from Oriental Vegetable Seeds (fast service, good selection). I've ordered seeds of shiso (3 types), daikon (4 types), a bok choi variety and Japanese cucumber.This week I've planted baby bok choi, aka-shiso (red shiso) and one daikon variety called Daebu summer. Daikon and bok choi surfaced after 2-3 days, I'm still vaiting for the shiso to sprout.

Both daikon and bok choi grow easily, just plant them right under the surface in moist soil, keep it fairly moist and warm and they'll grow fast.

Sunday, 3 May 2009

Today I've made hijiki for the 2nd time, this time I included konnyaku as well. It came out good, half was for dinner, the other is for bento box tomorrow, with rice, ume, egg and chicken. What a nice start to the week!

Prepare everything while the hijiki is soaking in cold water for at least 20 minutes.The abura age needs to be rinsed with boiling hot water and rolled on a clean towel with a chopstick to remove excess oil.

Fry the carrot strips in the vegetable oil until tender. Add konnyaku and abura age and cook for another 2-3 minutes, without burning the vegetables.

Add hijiki (without soaking water), fry for a minute and add the stock. Simmer everything in the stock until it has boiled down to aprox. half of the quantity. Serve hot in a bowl or cool down and add to your bento box.

Thursday, 16 April 2009

The shiso is coming along and today it was replanted in larger pots. I expect them to grow faster now, hoping for sunny, warm days to come... This is the 3 pots I'm keeping, I've got another 5 for friends.

I also test-seeded some daikon today to check seeding dept, how long it will take for them to surface and so on. Because daikon needs deeper pots (it grows downwards..), I'll have to wait until weather gets good enough to plant them outdoors. My kitchen is already crowded with shisoplants!

Mix eggs with the other ingredients, heat a pan. Oil the pan with a paper towel dipped in oil.Pour in 1/3 of the mixture. When it sets, fold the omelet as a roll towards one end of the pan.Pour in another 1/3 of mixture, lift the rolled omelet to let mixture under, let it set. Repeat with the last part of mixture. Leave to cool and cut in shape if you're using a circular pan.

Wednesday, 25 March 2009

This week has included two days of bento at work, tonkatsu and making lotus root chips. My daughter went crazy for thoose chips! Will do them again now that I've found fresh lotus root here in Oslo. It wasn't so large, but it made great chips!

Bento with rice, tamago, pickles, chicken, carrots and cabbage.The day after I had rice, pickles, bok choy, chicken and some aloe vera segments as well.

All wrapped up in my furoshiki and ready to go!

Slicing lotus root on my newly bought mandoline. I peeled the root and left it in water with some vinegar to prevent it from colouring.